The critical test case of S and Marper V United Kingdom has just been published.
The ECHR found against the UK and for S and Marper.
The two men whose DNA was take despite not being convicted or even charged with any crime had requested that their DNA samples are removed from the Police Database, however the police refused this (as they are able to under the ACPO guidelines) and the the two men, who are not related and were not involved in the same incident, pushed the case through the courts asking for the DNA to be removed. The case eventually ended up in the ECHR.
There was a unanimous decision, by the 17 judges, that the men’s rights, under Article 8 (right for privacy) had been breached.
With the UK Government storing large amounts of data on innocent people, the UK could/will be forced to scale back its DNA database. With known errors on the DNA databse, this could have profound effects for policing in the the UK
January 8, 2009 at 10:45 am
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March 4, 2009 at 3:34 am
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May 7, 2009 at 7:21 am
[...] Following this there was a test case, brough by two individuals, “S” and “Marper”, resulting in a case that went all the way to the ECHR, and resulted in a verdict against the UK Government in Decemebr 2008. [...]
May 12, 2009 at 7:35 am
[...] DNA database work? Posted on May 12, 2009 by Rob Following the Marper case in the ECHR, the defeat of the Government, the House of Lords report on privacy, and finally the Governments decision on how to enforce the [...]